Ask a STUPID question….
Mitt Romney just finished a contest “of sorts” asking his supporters to come up with ads for his campaign. He supplied clips, photos, etc. for this on his website [withheld because I don't like him].
So…as should be expected others have also taken up the challenge with the materials freely given.
Today is the 25th anniversary of the SMILEY emoticon!
It was 25 years ago today that Professor Research Professor Scott E. Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Science Department.
You can read more about it here: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/smiley.
Hey! In this world of terrorism, war, and suffering…why not celebrate something HAPPY!
On my hogbiker.com blog I posted a remembrance to Jezreel Herr, a wonderful young girl who passed away Friday. She was afflicted with congenital muscular dystrophy, one of the 43 different neuromuscular diseases that make up what we call Muscular Dystrophy.
You can read the tribute here: http://hogbiker.com/2007/09/17/we-will-never-forget-you-jezreel/83/
In his primetime televised address, President Bush announced plans to reduce US troops by roughly 30,000 by next summer, if certain conditions were met.
Wow!
The troop reduction that President Bush is touting is just returning the current troop level to just above pre-surge levels (the Congressional Budget Office report that stipulated that the troop “surge†of 21,000 troops to Iraq would probably be closer to 35,000 to 48,000 troops, once support troops are factored in).
“The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home,” he said in his speech. I’m curious as to what being successful now means.
I say that I’m curious because the Denver Research Group’s Global Power Barometer report, published in the Washington Post on Saturday, warns that US influence is now in “steep decline†owing to a number of key factors including:
- the war in Iraq, where the US will remain “bogged down†for years to come, rendering it unable to respond effectively to other world events;
- the loss of moral high ground that the US had held for decades, as a result of the Abu Ghraib scandal and Bush administration policies that appear to advocate torture;
- the consensus among world leaders that the US lacks a coherent foreign policy strategy;
- the inability of the US to effectively use the extraordinary power it possesses; and
- the Bush administration’s unfocused counter terrorism strategy which has dealt ineffectively with organizations such as al Qaeda, and allowed them to “hold their own or start to win”.
Causing me to wonder why despite the widely held view that the war in Iraq is not going well, and is likely to continue to erode American prestige without being offset by commensurate benefits, President Bush remains indomitably upbeat about the prospect of “success” in Iraq.
Maybe it’s because as a soldier who has briefed the viability of a continued conflict during “dads war” I can’t see where this will end up being a “good thing” as Martha says. Maybe it’s because there are lots of information stating that I am not alone:
- A poll conducted by CBS News found low levels of optimism regarding the troop surge, with only 29 percent of Americans responding that they thought the surge was having a positive impact in Iraq.
- The war in Iraq continues to be the major factor in President Bush’s abysmal domestic approval ratings. Only 29 percent of Americans approve of his performance, while 65 percent disapprove.
Given the level of opposition to the war among American voters, the President’s decision to give a prime time televised address left some top Republican strategists scratching their heads – especially in light of the stoically optimistic representations made by General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker earlier in the week.
It almost makes you wonder if he wants the GOP to loose, because there is nothing odder than watching an unpopular President going onto prime time television, interrupting Americans’ TV viewing to remind them of the single reason they don’t like him anymore.
Ta da dat da daaaa…..
Ba dat dat da da!
Last night to my surprise I was watching the Tonight Show (as I do on many evenings) and watched as our boogeyman candidate become real when he announced on the Tonight Show that he is FINALLY running for President!
I expect the pundits & media to call him a “late runner” and talk about his work to get ‘up to speed’ in the race for President.
I would like to remind many that coming in late to this race may not be so bad!
The list of front runners for the Republican presidency looks, frankly, like the list of stars from the Hollywood Squares – the “has-beens” in the world of politics (and I have to say that Rudy Giuliani would be the ‘Paul Lynde‘ or center square).
For many, the list are men who had their 15 minutes right after 9/11 and for some you have simply say “Who?” and shrug your shoulders.
The current republican candidates just don’t have, in this writer’s humble opinion, any OOMPH to rally around. While Mitt Romney did win the Illinois and Iowa straw polls, remember that Bill Clinton was not looking good in his first campaign for the White House (he was third pretty much right to the convention) and that the straw polls – which are taken during their respective State Fairs – isn’t my idea of real political sampling. In this century of the internets, it’s interesting to me that we don’t have any national polling via what is now arguably the second largest (and first interactive) media in America! We were able to vote for an singing idol, dancing star, and talented ventriloquist…so how is it that we can’t do a poll for a presidential candidate?!?!?
Now I am not a “Fredhead” (at least not yet), but with the tepid roster of Republican candidates ANY addition is welcome to me.
I also want to touch on the fact that Fred Thompson isn’t really late for the race if you think about it. He’s been considered a potential contender and real competitor for months before he officially announced his bid for the presidency last night…it’s why I’ve called him a boogeyman candidate for months now (I think it was Chris Matthews who coined the better term of “holographic candidate”).There have been serious discussions about him running like you’d hear about the boogeyman as a child (“You’d better behave or Fred’s going to jump up and run for President!”).
All he’s done is to finally make it official.
So…let’s all give a big round of applause to Fred Thomson in the left square!
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